On sunday, I was made aware that the forums were down. So I went in to look. I found that the forums files got changed and the forums got broken. I cleaned it up, looked for hidden stuff, and thought that we were good.
But then wednesday came along, and when I went to the forums I found them broken again, this time with a different hack.
I started to clean it up again, but then did more digging into the server and found a sneaky backdoor installed that I had missed when I cleaned the server up Sunday. At that point, there was no way I could trust that server anymore, so I downloaded the forum files, the forum database, and destroyed the server. I was mentally fried by that point, and did not feel ready to start a complete rebuild.
Thursday, I sat down and completely built a new server and web stack from scratch. I had to learn some new conventions and get my head around a few new techniques. So that took most of the day. I didn't want to bring the forums up again until I was mentally fresh. I am glad I waited, because...
Today I brought the forums up again. I had to do some manual tweaking on specific configuration options to get it working correctly, but it seems like it was worth it.
On a side note, I was able to fix emails, so now you should actually get them in your inbox.
I hope you all enjoy the new and snappier forums.
But then wednesday came along, and when I went to the forums I found them broken again, this time with a different hack.
I started to clean it up again, but then did more digging into the server and found a sneaky backdoor installed that I had missed when I cleaned the server up Sunday. At that point, there was no way I could trust that server anymore, so I downloaded the forum files, the forum database, and destroyed the server. I was mentally fried by that point, and did not feel ready to start a complete rebuild.
Thursday, I sat down and completely built a new server and web stack from scratch. I had to learn some new conventions and get my head around a few new techniques. So that took most of the day. I didn't want to bring the forums up again until I was mentally fresh. I am glad I waited, because...
Today I brought the forums up again. I had to do some manual tweaking on specific configuration options to get it working correctly, but it seems like it was worth it.
On a side note, I was able to fix emails, so now you should actually get them in your inbox.
I hope you all enjoy the new and snappier forums.
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